1.1 Version and History

Allegro CL 8.2 for the most part provides a unified Windows/Unix
implementation. The important difference between the Windows and the
Unix implementations is that the Windows implementation is closely
integrated with the Windows operating system, and provides
(particularly with the Integrated Development Environment described in
this document) tools for producing Windows-style applications, which
can be also used on certain Linux platfoms and on the Mac.

The Integrated Development Environment is a windowized tool for developing user
interfaces to applications. Common Graphics is the window system used by the IDE. Most
symbols associated with the IDE and Common Graphics are in the cg package.

A note on illustrations

The icon for Allegro CL changed in release 8.2. It was a blue bust (of
Franz Liszt) and now has natural colors. The icon appears at the upper
left of most IDE windows. Some illustrations in this manual are from
earlier releases and so show the old icon. Others have been
updated. When only unimportant details of the contents of the
illustration, such as the icon, changed in release 8.2, we have not in
many cases replaced the illustration.

1.2 Documentation

Allegro CL 8.2, Common Graphics, and the IDE are documented with HTML files integrated
with the rest of the Allegro CL documentation. The documentation includes (<Allegro
directory> is the directory where Allegro CL is installed):

The Allegro CL Integrated Development Environment User Guide. This is the
document you are now reading. It describes the tools for developing the user interface to
an application.

The Allegro CL Documentation. All Allegro CL documentation, including that for
Common Graphics and the IDE, is online, in a collection of HTML files (except for certain
add-on products documented in PDF files). The base directory for the Allegro CL online
documentation is <Allegro directory>/doc/. The file introduction.htm
in that directory provides a guide to the Allegro CL documentation. Clicking the menu
command Help | Allegro CL
Documentation displays introduction.htm. The file
cgide.htm provides information about Common Graphics and the
Integrated Development Environment, including information about CG and IDE documentation.

The Release Notes. release-notes.htm.
Included are the release notes for Common Graphics and the IDE.

The ANSI Common Lisp specification. (The starting page of that document is in <Allegro
directory>/ansicl/ansicl.htm.) This provides the primary documentation for Common
Lisp functionality.

Extensions and implementation details of standard Common Lisp functionality are
described in various Allegro CL documents, particularly implementation.htm.
The index in index.htm has links to this documentation.

Doodler tutorial. This is a completely worked out example of using the IDE to build an
application (which draws curves based on user specifications). The project is described
and the steps of the tutorial are detailed in <Allegro
directory>/gui-builder-tutorial/doodler.htm.

1.3 Editor

You can run the Allegro CL 8.2 IDE as a subprocess of GNU Emacs. Just start Allegro CL
within Emacs in the usual way. Make sure you specify allegro.dxl as the image file
(rather than mlisp.dxl, which is Allegro CL without the IDE).

Files will be opened in Emacs (rather than the IDE Editor Workbook) if the Open
Files in GNU Emacs option on the Editor Options pane is selected and Emacs is running
and linked to Lisp. (The illustration just below shows the Editor Options pane with the Open
Files in GNU Emacs option not checked.)

Editing (other than using Emacs) should be in text-edit windows or panes, such as the
Debug window and the Editor Workbook (which has tabs for different editor buffers). The
editing mode for text-edit windows can be Host, Emacs, or Brief. The mode is set in the Editor tab of the Options dialog (displayed with Tools | Options). Here is
that dialog. The Host mode is chosen:

The :EMACS mode uses a subset of standard Emacs keybindings. Note that these may alter
menu shortcuts, to prevent them from conflicting with the Emacs keybindings.

1.4 Case mode and International Characters

Allegro CL is available in modern mode (case-sensitive, lowercase preferred) and
ANSI mode (case-insensitive, uppercase preferred). Images with different modes are
supplied with the Allegro CL distribution (except the Trial distribution which has only
ANSI mode, through you can build a modern mode image). You may run Allegro CL with the IDE
in either modern mode or ANSI mode (there are separate Start menu items for each mode).

Allegro CL 8.2 also supports international characters, meaning that characters are
16-bits wide rather than 8-bits wide. (8-bit versions of Allegro CL 8.2 are supplied. No
pre-built 8-bit IDE image is supplied, though such can be built.) You should not see any
difference because you are using an international version. Please contact Franz Inc. for
assistance if you run into problems. International character support is described in doc/iacl.htm (iacl for International Allegro
CL).

1.5 The IDE and CG modules and packages

The modules for the IDE and for Common Graphics are separate (the separation occurred
in release 8.2). The IDE is not needed in applications. The separation of CG and the IDE
allows the IDE to easily be left out of an application. Symbols naming functionality in
the IDE are in the ide package.

The cg package has been divided into several dozen subsidiary
packages. All documented symbols in the subsidiary packages are also exported from the cg
package. Programmers therefore do not need to deal with the subsidiary packages
specifically. Programmers will see the packages listed in the Package List window and
when a symbol is described (using describe or the standard keyboard
equivalent Control-Shift-D), but in general the subsidiary packages can be ignored.

The subsidiary packages are associated with individual modules. This division into
subsidiary packages and modules also allows applications to load only the functionality
needed for the application.

1.6 Configuration

Your preferences about window arrangement, choice of fonts, editor mode, and so on are
stored in a file in the Allegro folder (where Allegro CL was installed) called prefs.cl.
This file is updated when you exit Allegro CL (unless the menu command Tools | Save
Options on Exit is toggled off), incorporating changes made using the Options dialog (displayed with Tools | Options) and when
you make direct changes to the configuration using the Inspector as described just below.
Deleting or renaming prefs.cl (and deleting prefs.fasl if it exists) will
cause the IDE to revert to the initial default settings.

Most details of the system are stored as the value of the variable *ide-system* (some relating specifically
to the windowing system rather than the user interface are stored in the variable *system*).

You can examine the configuration by clicking Tools | Inspect
System Data | [CG or IDE] Configuration Options (there are two menu items, one for CG
options and one for IDE options). The Inspector shows all configuration properties and
their values. Values can be changed directly in the Inspector, by clicking on the value
and typing or clicking on the extended editor button to the right of the value and
entering the new value in the dialog that appears (different dialogs appear for different
types of values). Here is the Inspector showing some configuration options:

1.7 Reporting bugs and asking questions

Send problem reports and technical questions of any type by email to support@franz.com.
See our website (www.franz.com) for information on
Franz Inc.'s mailing address and telephone number.

Please state explicitly in your message that you have Allegro CL 8.2
with the IDE and say what version of Windows you are using (2000, NT,
XP, 7, etc.), or the OS version for Linux or the Mac. Send us the
output
of print-system-state
(the output includes information about patches and settings and other
information which can be very helpful in determining the cause of a
problem). You can
use dribble-bug to
write a file showing a transcript of a failure (the file will
automatically
contain print-system-state
output). You can produce an automatic dribble along with a backtrace
by doing File
| Save while a backtrace pane is selected (the backtrace pane is
displayed when you click on the Debug button of
a Restarts dialog after an error). The saved file is suitable
for including in a bug report. See the
topic About submitting a bug
report from a break in the IDE in
the doc/cgide.htm file. See
also Reporting
bugs in introduction.htm.